Miami Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill’s Time is NOW
Dec 29, 2013; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill (17) reacts during a game against the New York Jets at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
The Miami Dolphins have struggled to find their successor to the great Dan Marino at the quarterback position. The Dolphins shuffled through names such as Jay Fiedler, Dante Culpepper, Chad Pennington, Cleo Lemon, and Chad Henne among many others. But in the 2012 NFL Draft the Miami Dolphins selected their future “franchise” quarterback with the eighth overall selection in Texas A&M QB Ryan Tannehill.
Tannehill played well during his first season with the team throwing for 3,294 yards a 58.3 completion percentage and a 12 to 13 touchdown to interception ratio.
In his second season, you could even say the second-year pro took a few steps forward throwing for 3,913 yards a 60.4 completion percentage and a 24 to 17 touchdown to interception ratio.
While that’s all fine and dandy we also must look at two key numbers here: In his first two seasons in the league, Tannehill has committed 39 total turnovers (18 fumbles, 9 of which were lost) and has been sacked an astounding 93 times over two seasons. That’s 46.5 sacks per season.
The Miami Dolphins fired former GM Jeff Ireland and brought in Dennis Hickey to fill the shoes left behind by the aforementioned Ireland. Hickey has done an above average job this season of building up this offense for his third-year quarterback to make leaps and bounds this season.
Hickey has rebuilt the offensive line by adding a stud left tackle in former Kansas City Chief Branden Albert. He has added an underrated guard in former St. Louis Ram Shelley Smith. Added an athletic and valuable back-up right tackle in former Miami Hurricane and Detroit Lion Jason Fox, and has added a 49-game starter in Tennessee Volunteer Ja’Wuan James as the right
Sep 14, 2013; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; LSU Tigers wide receiver Jarvis Landry (80) against the Kent State Golden Flashes during the first half of a game at Tiger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
tackle of the future and a tackle/guard in North Dakota State’s Billy Turner, who possesses the athleticism to be a dynamic pulling guard.
Hickey has also added a few weapons to Tannehill’s arsenal with former Denver Bronco RB Knowshon Moreno, former Tennessee Titan WR Damian Williams, Georgia TE Arthur Lynch, and LSU WR Jarvis Landry, who may become a very valuable piece to this offense new OC Bill Lazor will be putting into place.
Which brings us to our next point in Bill Lazor. No we cannot credit Lazor, who was the QB coach for the Philadelphia Eagles last season, with the insane season PHI QB Nick Foles had, but we can imagine that he did play some role in Foles’ development from a third-round draft pick to a quarterback who throws a 27:2 touchdown to interception ratio, which by the way is an NFL record.
Philadelphia had a high powered attack offensively last season, which should be something that the Miami Dolphins will attempt to do this season with weapons such as WR Brian Hartline, WR Mike Wallace, WR Jarvis Landry, WR Brandon Gibson, RB Knowshon Moreno, RB Lamar Miller, TE Charles Clay, TE Arthur Lynch. TE Michael Egnew, and of course, QB Ryan Tannehill.
If Miami were to go out and add a seam-threat such as former Green Bay Packer TE Jermichael Finley, QB Ryan Tannehill would have absolutely no reason to burst onto the scene as a franchise caliber quarterback. Remember, Ryan Tannehill has all of the tools to be a stud quarterback in the league, he just needs time to find his targets and the coaching/help to put all of his tools to work.
The time is now for QB Ryan Tannehill to burst onto the scene and make the Miami Dolphins relevant again.
Can he?
Don’t forget to tune in to Direct Snap this Saturday night at 8:30 PM est, we will be joined by a HUGE NAME guest on Saturday so it’s a show you won’t want to miss. We will fill you in on Friday with the details. If you missed last Saturday’s NFL Draft re-cap show, press play in the player below. Remember to follow us, or me, on twitter @Direct_Snap AND “like” us on facebook at facebook.com/theofficialdirectsnap
Popular Sports Internet Radio with Fins Radio on BlogTalkRadio